Arkansas Publisher Weekly: December 1, 2022

For year-end charitable giving, consider the ANF

Guest Column:

Rural

journalism is good journalism

By Al Cross

Arkansas Press Association Publisher Weekly

Faubel, long-time friend to APA, set to retire at year’s end

A friendly face at many APA golf tournaments will soon hang up the key to her golf cart.

Melinda Faubel, director of external affairs for AT&T in Arkansas, will enjoy her first day of retirement on Dec. 31. She’s familiar to members of the Arkansas Press Association for her two decades of participation in the annual tournaments that raise money for the Arkansas Newspaper Foundation.

Much of those funds go to the foundation’s support of summer internships at newspapers around the state. Those internships help grow the state’s next generation of newspaper journalists.

Not that APA and ANF were the only beneficiaries of Faubel’s 21 years in external affairs.

“I was fortunate to work with so many non-profits,” she said in an interview in her office in the Victory Building, a stone’s throw from the APA. “They made my job so much better.”

AT&T’s support of the ANF over the years has been a contribution to the foundation.

Faubel cast her mind back to her first APA convention. It was in Pine Bluff in 2001, she said. A highlight of the convention was a trip to the Pine Bluff Arsenal.

The pandemic has put a temporary stop to the tournament, but between the tournament in 2001 and the tournament in 2019, “I handed out a lot of beers to you guys.

“I’ve seen a lot of good shots and a lot of bad shots. The best part was being around you people.”

Faubel’s frequent partners were public relations folks from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. They included Leslie Taylor, Andrea Peel and Liz Caldwell

And how about the weather?

“It was always so hot. That was what was most memorable,” Faubel said.

She was also at the convention in Fort Smith when a pipe burst and flooded part of the hotel. That was also the year a violent thunderstorm canceled the golf tournament in nearby Alma (That tournament was rescheduled for August.) Faubel doesn’t remember if she was on hand at the Country Club of Arkansas in Maumelle when the temperature hit 103 degrees.

Andrea Peel and Leslie Taylor of UAMS with Ronnie Dedman and Faubel of AT&T Arkansas, then called SBC Arkansas, at the 25th annual APA Golf Tournament in 2005.

Melinda Faubel

Faubel, long-time friend to APA, set to retire at year’s end

“I was at plenty of hot ones,” Faubel said, “and so we started doing the cold towels.”

Faubel’s not a golfer, but her father was. He had at least six holes in one, she said.

“Even though I’m not a golfer I loved to be out there. It’s so serene. Except when y’all are carrying on about something.”

Some of those carrying on, she remembered, were Ron Kemp of Rector, Louie Graves of Nashville, and Dennis Byrd and Jay Edwards of Little Rock. Faubel also collaborated with Karen Brown, who was a longtime director of the foundation.

“Louie was one of the standouts and funniest people. He was always a character.”

One year, in Eureka Springs, she was riding in Bob Moore’s personal golf cart — and it broke down. Moore is a past president of the APA.

AT&T also participated with the APA on the “It Can Wait” project, which educates people, especially young people, on the dangers of texting and driving. The message is simple. When driving, texting can wait. The campaign included an essay contest for teens.

“That was a really fun project,” Faubel said. “Ashley Kemp Wimberley was fun to work with on that.” Wimberley is the APA’s current director.

Faubel is a native of Little Rock. Her list of professional accomplishments include her degree in industrial engineering from the University of Arkansas — “I was one of the few women in that discipline” — and an MBA from the University of Dallas. As director of external and legislative affairs, she has managed the contribution budget, sponsorships, and local advertising for the telecom’s division in Arkansas.

She joined the company in 1981, and held positions in network engineering, planning, and human resources in labor relations and staffing. She is a longtime member of the AT&T Pioneers, AT&T’s community service organization, and of the Women of AT&T. Faubel served in leadership positions in both.

Faubel is a 2007 graduate of the inaugural class of the Arkansas State Chamber

A house ad promoting the “It Can Wait” student writing contest, on which AT&T Arkansas partnered annually with ANF from 2015-2018. The 2018 contest was won by Aleigha Burns of Monticello High School.

Faubel with husband Steve and children Wilson, Christine and Christian.

Faubel, long-time friend to APA, set to retire at year’s

a valuable service to our communities and their work is essential to our democracy.”

Asked to describe the characteristics of newspaper people, Faubel was quick with an answer.

“Lots of energy, and all very personable. Maybe that’s because of what they do, interacting with people.

“They’re good, kind people.”

Conventions were more than golf tournaments.

“It was good to see people from year to year. And the political debates were really good.”

Faubel appreciates one of the APA’s traditions involving the association’s newest and past presidents.

“I love the passing of the gavel. It recognizes those who have done so much for the association.”

Three colleagues in external affairs in Arkansas will soon retire as well, Faubel said. They include Ronnie Dedman of Little Rock, Ricky Cross of Fort Smith, and Cathy Foraker of Fayetteville. All these retirements are coincidental, Faubel said. It was simply the right time for everyone.

Remaining in external affairs in Little Rock, she said, will be Lisa Lake

Retirement will give Faubel an opportunity to visit her children: Christine of Denver, Wilson of Dallas, and Christian of New York City. Wilson’s the golfer. “My son has the bug.”

Not to worry about what else retirement may bring, Faubel said

“I’m one of those people who always has stuff to do.”

launch North America Subscriptions Lab

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette is among several newspapers and media groups selected to participate in the 2022 Google News Initiative North America Subscriptions Lab.

Delivered in collaboration with FT Strategies, the seven-month program is an ambitious and intensive experience addressing every step of the digital subscriptions process and aims to give participating news organizations the tools to achieve rapid improvement in key subscriptions metrics. Participants will receive customized consulting and hands-on support as they develop

For year-end charitable giving, consider the ANF

News media plays a critical role in keeping citizens informed on important issues. As we reach the end of the year, consider the Arkansas Newspaper Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit for your charitable giving. ANF aids community newspapers around the state with grants, internships, fellowships and other programs.

By supporting the Arkansas Newspaper Foundation, you are ensuring that journalism in Arkansas remains strong and incisive. Any amount you can contribute will have an impact. Whether it’s $5 or $500, your tax-deductible contribution makes a difference.

Checks may be made out to Arkansas Newspaper Foundation and mailed to Arkansas Press Association, 411 South Victory, Little Rock AR 72201. To securely donate via the APA website, visit arkansaspress.org/page/aboutanf

Current rate cards requested by APA

In order to better serve our member newspapers, APA requests copies of your current print and digital advertising rate cards.

Even if your ad rates have not changed recently, please email your most recent rate card to rebecca@arkansaspress.org so that we can make sure we have the most up-to-date information on file.

INDUSTRY QUOTE

“Journalism still, in a democracy, is the essential force to get the public educated and mobilized to take action on behalf of our ancient ideals.”

ANFArkansasPre s s Association

A r kansasNewsp a perFoundatio n

Paxton Media Group adds six North Carolina newspapers to its roster

Six newspapers in North Carolina have been acquired by Paxton Media Group of Paducah, Kentucky.

The New Bern Sun Journal, Jacksonville Daily News, Kinston Free Press, The Times-News in Burlington, The CourierTribune in Asheboro and The Dispatch in Lexington were previously owned by Gannett. The sale was effective Dec. 1.

Paxton Media Group is operated by fourth- and fifth-generation Paxton family members. The group owns more than 100 newspapers throughout the South and Midwest, including 11 in Arkansas.

“We are excited to add these newspapers to our growing portfolio in North Carolina,” said Jamie Paxton, PMG president and CEO. “PMG believes strongly in the value of local newspapers and the vital role they play in the communities that they serve. We appreciate being chosen to be the new stewards of these important community assets and intend to work hard to maintain

the trust that these publications have earned over their long and storied history.” Paxton leadership assured staff members in a meeting on Nov. 18 that they believe strongly in local journalism.

“We look forward to serving the readers and businesses in these communities,” said Jana Thomasson, North Carolina, Tennessee and Georgia Division President and Group Publisher. “We focus on local content and our goal is to add journalists for this purpose.”

“These newspapers have a long history of providing quality local journalism for readers,” said Trever Dunnell of the Sun-Journal in an editorial following the announcement of the sale. “Without local journalism, issues that matter the most tend to die in the dark. Through hard work, determination and drive, we have helped to shine a light on those issues and will continue under the new ownership. I am excited about what is in store for the future of eastern North Carolina journalism.”

—Doris Kearns Goodwin

Rural journalism is good journalism

By Al Cross

At the Institute for Rural Journalism, we stand for several propositions, including these two: Rural people deserve good journalism as much as urban people; and at a time when newspapers must sustain themselves by getting more revenue from their audiences, people aren’t going to pay good money for poor journalism.

So, we think it’s important to exalt examples of good work, and that’s why we present the Tom and Pat Gish Award for courage, integrity and tenacity in rural journalism — and partner with the Bluegrass Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists to give the Al Smith Award for public service through community journalism by Kentuckians.

When we presented those awards Nov. 3, the recipients’ acceptance speeches inspired us and the rest of the crowd, so this edition of Into the Issues shares part of what they had to say, as published on The Rural Blog.

Ellen Kreth and the Madison County Record of Huntsville, Arkansas, won the Gish Award for holding local school officials accountable for how they mishandled complaints of sexual abuse by older members on younger members of a junior high basketball team.

“Their first order of business was to cover it up,” Kreth said. “The parents’ first order of business ... was to contact the Madison County Record. They trusted the newspaper; they knew they could trust us to tell the story. Most importantly, they also knew they could trust Shannon”

— Shannon Hahn, the paper’s general

manager. “She lives in the community and has children in the school, and they knew they could come to her.”

The Record didn’t name any students involved but uncovered open-meetings violations; reported school board members’ deliberations by piecing together text messages that were sent to the papers out of order; and prompted a lawsuit by a parent alleging violations of Title IX of the Education Amendments of

were true, but ... they attacked our role in the community,” Kreth said. “They said we shouldn’t report the allegations, that we were harming the victims, and that we should also be quiet about it. During multiple school board meetings, the board members attacked the newspaper, saying our job was to promote the school, not report on it. We were to be their public–relations Department.

“And that’s the one area I think about this whole story, in the context of rural journalism, that screams the loudest to me. The most common comment, but also the most surprising, was ‘I can’t believe a local newspaper would cover something like that.’ ... We always believed our role in this story and in our community is telling the facts, telling the story, digging in deep and piecing the facts together. This story was built on trust” among the paper and the parents of the victims.

1972, which ban sex–based discrimination in any school that gets federal funding. The school board admitted liability in that suit, the superintendent and coach were charged with first-degree failure to report, and they resigned. Three of the four board members who sought reelection lost.

“Sometimes democracy works to support journalism, right?” Kreth asked. It was vindication after months of harsh criticism.

“They never attacked the facts that we reported because they knew that they

And through it all, the paper’s staff remained part of the community: “We shook hands with everyone who would throw darts at us,” Kreth said. “In the same editions where we ran those Title IX stories, we still had school lunch menus, church news, obituaries, library news, city council coverage; we told people where to get their COVID vaccines, and we also reported on Decoration Day at local cemeteries. That’s what rural journalism is to us: the good, the bad, the ugly and every single thing in between.”

L-R: Al Cross, director, Institute for Rural Journalism; Ben Gish, The Mountain Eagle, Whitesburg, Ky.; Publisher Ellen Kreth and General Manager Shannon Hahn, Madison County Record, receiving the Tom and Pat Gish Award for courage, integrity and tenacity in rural journalism on Nov. 3. (Photo: Yung Soo Kim, University of Kentucky School of Journalism and Media)

Rural journalism is good journalism

Continued from Page 6

Chris Evans and Allison Mick-Evans of The Crittenden Press in Marion, Kentucky won the Smith Award for innovating, reporting, holding local officials accountable and persevering in the face of increasing challenges to their community and their industry for almost 30 years.

Evans gave the audience an analysis, a manifesto and a warning. He said the loss of community newspapers “has left our country ripe for an invasion of mistruth” and said the remaining papers must adapt to the digital age to survive.

“Our power rests on our ability to innovate and persevere. To do that, we are going to have to morph into something a bit different,” he said. “The internet has given us a new, less expensive mode of delivery. Now, I am not proposing that we all stop our presses today, but we have

to embrace the future. We cannot be too stubborn or too proud. ... We’re reluctant to admit the truth because we have always printed newspapers. ... We just have to convince ourselves and our advertisers to go with us. We do not need to convince our readers. They’re already there.

“As the town crier, we’ve got to have the loudest voice, but right now, we’re being muffled by social media. We have to create our own platform, pool our resources and figure out whether it’s an app or a network or something else, but our model must change. I don’t know that anyone in the newspaper industry has really figured out how to make that move. ... If we don’t find a way to change our model ... we’re going to die.”

Evans closed his speech by calling for continuing conversations among rural editors and publishers: “I want to know

what people are thinking. We are all in this together, and together we can find a way forward.”

There are a lot of smart people in rural journalism, but their conversations are often limited by the isolation that defines rurality. Part of my job is to spark those conversations and keep them going. I invite your help.

Al Cross edited and managed rural newspapers before covering politics for the Louisville Courier Journal and serving as president of the Society of Professional Journalists. He is the extension professor of journalism at the University of Kentucky and director of its Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, which publishes The Rural Blog at http://irjci. blogspot.com